From the Publisher: The essays collected in this volume address the full range of pedagogical and programmatic issues specifically facing technical communication teachers and program directors in the computer age. The authors locate computers and computing activities within the richly textured cultural contexts of a technological society, focusing on the technical communication instructional issues that remain most important as old versions of hardware and software are endlessly replaced by new ones.

In a series of books published between 1964 and 1987 (C. Alexander, 1964; 1987; C. Alexander et al., 1975; 1977), Christopher Alexander, an urban planner and architect, has inspired object oriented programmers with his idea of a pattern language, which originally catalogued solutions to common problems faced by any community or individual creating livable structures such as a town or a house. His approach might also help technical communicators polish and perfect our own standard rhetorical structures (such as the procedure, user guide, or reference), viewed as common ways of answering frequent, if virtual questions from our users. Alexander's way of describing age-old patterns such as neighbourhoods, streets, paths, and homes may give us a model for creating our own set of patterns in technical communication, whether or not we adopt some of the eager elaborations offered by folks in the object oriented design world.

Technical writers, for the most part, write user documentation of some kind. However, they also have skills that might enable them to also serve as user-advocates on product development teams and testers of prototype systems. In the computer hardware and software industry, they have the additional skills needed to develop online help tools, to design user interfaces, and to write system and error messages (J. Fisher, 1998). Fisher's recent survey of (Australian) technical communicators showed that some are employed in such tasks, but not widely so. She reports, for instance, that only 38% were consulted by developers about error messages, only 32% actually wrote error messages, and only 13% reported that they had some role in system testing (J. Fisher, 1998). A question emerges out of such results: is there really any necessary and supportive connection between the process of explaining a product to a user and the original process of developing that product? As technical writers looking to expand our roles [and salaries], we would like to say yes. But, in fairness, we have to admit our bias. We need to check such biases against other, independent evidence. The article interfaces this question with a parallel question in the philosophy of science: is there any connection between experimental test results used to "sell" a theory to a scientific audience and the original process of developing that theory?.

All technical documentation projects benefit from a good content plan or doc spec. The doc spec is a blueprint for a document. It identifies the product, users, source materials, and subject matter experts (SME). It also provides a preliminary outline of topics, and it estimates the effort to produce the document. Although the doc spec described is for a printed software user guide, you can adapt your doc spec for other types of documentation, including hardware manuals and training guides. The doc spec template is simply a tool that leads you through the document planning and estimating process. Your customized doc spec captures the who, what, when, why, and how of your project.

Analytical reports, being one of the most difficult genres to teach in a technical writing course, are best taught through the "open case" method. Open cases take advantage of the fact that students are already situated in a workplace environment, the college campus. Engineering students can use the genre to impose order on this chaotic environment, conducting various forms of research on engineering-related campus issues. A process for developing open case assignments is provided.

A Web site depends on more than its ability to attract. Crucial to its success is understanding what Web site users need and want, and consequently choosing appropriate content, structure, and navigational support. In creating Web based information, professional communicators are able to incorporate the kinds of textual and structural support for readers that is impossible to achieve in hardcopy. This reader-centered approach is familiar to technical communicators, but what about readers who have special needs? The question is important for organizations to consider as they move increasingly to online information for the public. The article describes problems that language-impaired users may face in getting information from the Internet. They focus on language disorders resulting from Alzheimer's disease and brain damage (e.g., a stroke). The article highlights the mental and language skills that are involved in using the Internet.

We often hear the expression that mathematics is the universal language of science and technology. Yet, while mathematics can cut across certain communicative boundaries, it is not the actual language of the sciences, for that role has already been filled by English. The author considers how English is the international language of technical communication.

The range of roles performed by technical communicators during the systems development process was identified and published from a 1997 survey of Australian technical communicators. Follow-up case study research investigated the development of 20 information systems. The research sought to quantify the technical communicator's contribution from the external viewpoint of developers and users. The paper describes the major findings from this research. The results support the 1997 survey findings that technical communicators do contribute positively to information systems development. The results quantitatively demonstrate that users are significantly more satisfied with computer systems where technical communicators are involved in the development process.

This paper describes a methodology for testing the usability of a digital library. The paper also presents the results from using this methodology on a specific library of technical manuals. The testing process involves timing subjects while they look up facts in comparable libraries of online and paper documents. They are timed for both how long they take to find a desired manual in the library and how long they take to find a desired fact in a chosen manual. Next, the subjects fill out a questionnaire on which type library they prefer using and why. The objective time results and the subjective preferences are compared and analyzed.

The profession of technical communication is difficult to define in scope, and the work performed by its members is even more difficult to quantify. The work crosses many disciplines and the skills needed to effectively undertake these tasks are broad. In the area of systems development, technical. Communicators have the skills to perform many tasks, especially those related to human factors, and yet much of their contribution goes unrecognized. A recent survey of Australian technical communicators sought to more clearly identify their work in the area of systems development; this paper presents and discusses the results of that survey.

Looks at the application of minimalist principles in technical documentation.

With the burgeoning in recent years of the service sector, emotion management by frontline employees is becoming an increasingly prevalent means of differentiating one service provider from its competitors. Chronic emotion management, however, is thought to have serious negative consequences on the health of the employee in terms of stress and stress-related disease. This study addresses for the first time the empirical question of whether there is a direct link between emotion management and stress, by using a new self-report tool aimed at measuring emotional suppression/faking among 137 frontline employees. The results suggest that high levels of emotion management occur In at least one third of all frontline communications, and that the more emotion management performed, the more stress experienced. The implications for technical communicators and researchers are outlined.

In creating complex interactive documents, some technical communicators use software products that emphasize format and style in displaying pages. This approach limits the communicator's ability to repackage the information presented in electronic versions and increase its interactive use, which is a key benefit of the structure-based approach offered by using Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML). In a number of projects that render mathematical, scientific, and engineering texts electronically, using SGML allows the technical communicator to make equations interactive and to automate links to references. The author sketches out problems associated with page description approaches to displaying electronic pages and discusses the comparative benefits of SGML.

To improve the structure of complex information when it is to be presented electronically, technical communicators may turn to ideas taken from object-oriented programming to clarify and revive the structure of the material in existing documents before mounting them on-line. When an organization starts moving information onto the Web, technical communicators may go through a phase transition: as the publishing system becomes much more complex, it exhibits emergent behaviors, and it demands new attitudes, concepts, and work from the technical communicator.

Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation will be presented on-line. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides one way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. We used this method to help a client gather important information about user and use models and design a new information library for complex server computer systems.

In developing new ways to publish vast amounts of information, many technical communication teams face problems that go far beyond the challenges of one book, a series of books, or even a series of CD-ROMs. Technical communicators begin to face a constellation of problems that are more like those that have plagued software development since it became a distinct profession in the 1960s. At first a project seems promising. Then, as the work begins and progresses, we become enmeshed in interlocking problems of management, purchasing, staffing, training, installation, integration, and vision. This article summarizes the lessons learned from a major effort to use the Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) to pull together into a single, accessible, electronic "publication" large amounts of very complicated information.

Complex scientific graphics that reproduce well on paper may be difficult to display on computer because of the limited size and resolution of standard desktop monitors. This paper describes several methods for computer display of such large, dense graphics that preserve the usability of the graphics and support the ways users need to interact with the figures. Building on a simple structure of base panels and overlays joined by hypertext links, these methods provide ways of reorganizing figures into smaller graphical units that can be displayed easily, yet communicate all the information the original figure was designed to convey.

As multimedia communication continues to grow, online technologies have dramatically changed the ways we use and present information-so much so, that we need new theories and models for understanding how technology and content are related in the new communication environment. The paper presents a theory of digital architecture, explains how SGML, HTML, and information architectures are related in the creation of a new online literacy and rhetoric, and discusses concepts, skills, and resources needed for educating tomorrow's technical communicators.

A post hoc analysis of data collected from a usability test on the Fluke ScopeMeter 97 (a diagnostic instrument for analyzing electrical signals) revealed that, in doing tasks, subjects were making use of their own internal metaphors (user generated) that were unsupported by the design of the ScopeMeter keys. We investigated the interaction of the user generated metaphors and designer generated metaphors. By examining the effects that the subjects' skill levels and their backgrounds had on employing such metaphors, we began to outline certain characteristics of user generated metaphors. We found that user generated metaphors demonstrate unyielding persistence in the minds of ScopeMeter users, particularly in the higher skilled subjects.

The study of ethics is important for technical communication students and professionals because as workers and as citizens they confront ethical dilemmas and must act. The article describes and contrasts several foundational and nonfoundational ethical approaches. Analyzing two well known ethics cases from the perspective of the different approaches, it is argued that although foundational approaches are limited, they provide better insights than do nonfoundational approaches. Finally, the article describes a problem solving technique, based on foundational approaches and communicative ethics, that can be used by technical communication students and professionals to analyze ethical dilemmas.

The ISTE approach offers a new method of concurrent testing that is less time-consuming than usual. In addition, it helps catch the user in the act and the scores show almost immediately whether the user has processed the manual as intended. In the ISTE approach, the main information subtypes in a manual are coupled to their intended and unintended effects on users. Research has shown that the ISTE approach yields reliable and valid findings. In addition, it has been found to be versatile and easy to apply, and it provides valuable insights on the usability of a manual.

Engineers face many technical writing tasks that have many features in common: title, abstract, introduction, problem formulation, methods, results, and conclusions. But it is often very difficult to actually write these segments in the same order they appear in the finished product. Instead of this linear approach, we recommend a modular approach starting with the core sections, the methods and results that researchers know best, and working backward and forward to pick up the beginnings and endings. We show how the beginning and ending sections build on the core sections and offer strategies to improve them.

When faced with the need to seek employment, technical communicators with expertise in proposal writing may want to extend their job-seeking horizons beyond the for-profit world and also consider nonprofit organizations as potential employers. The skills required of proposal writers and the situations in which they work are similar whether the writer is employed by a for-profit corporation or a nonprofit organization such as a private college or social service charity. In developing proposals, writers employed in either setting use similar proposal formats, rely on good interpersonal skills while working under deadline pressures, and work with teams of experts from a variety of fields. The article concludes with information on careers with nonprofit organizations, including typical salaries, benefits, and job titles.

Businesses need not do much that is expensive, radical, or new to improve their documentation, and a product oriented approach is much more likely to be used in the workplace instead of the writing as a process approach. These are the two findings that emerged from our study of the revision of manuals as described by practising technical communicators. We conducted in depth interviews with 20 technical communicators from six different types of industries to explore and understand their concept and use of the revision process. The study describes the understanding technical communicators have of revision in their corporate cultures and then discusses the need for an improved understanding of product based writing among educators of technical communicators.

In a national random sample of electrical engineers, respondents answered questions relating to the adequacy of communication preparation at their undergraduate institutions, and they provided recommendations for curricular change to better prepare students for common communication tasks in the work place. The results of this survey are compared to observations made by engineers during in depth interviews (see ibid., March 1995). In both studies, engineers report that communication is a central activity that consumes fully half of the working day. Based on both the survey and interview data, the authors recommend adjusting curricula to include the practice of cooperative problem-solving, to make evaluation of communication competence a component of grades, and to require students to take both a technical writing and public presentation course.

The paper argues that virtual communication spaces such as the World Wide Web (WWW) offer unique opportunities for collaboration within technical writing classrooms. Three common types of project scenarios are identified, along with the discourse communities and collaborative relationships that are supported and emphasized by each project scenario. A technical writing assignment is described that emphasizes the benefits of students collaborating within the WWW, an emerging, real world discourse community. In describing this assignment, we redefine collaboration to include activities used by WWW site developers and designers.

Professional technical writers have a role to play as instructors in technical writing programs, as they are experts in the tools, procedures, and policies of a professional documentation department. When a writer enters the classroom, the writer, the writer's employer, the students, and the academic institution all benefit. Preparing to teach a course is not difficult, as the article explains.

The paper discusses applying computer networks to cooperative distance learning for technical communication education. It first outlines applications of communication technologies employed in distance learning, and describes the design strategies of the applications. The paper's main focus is on the CORAL (Cooperative Remotely Accessible Learning) system for promoting cooperative distance learning currently under development in Taiwan. The CORAL system is a collective and collaborative project intended to integrate four major components in concept and construction: an interactive learning environment, educational foundations and implications, domain knowledge; and research efforts. One of CORAL system's goals is to aid science and engineering students in learning communication technology courseware. The CORAL development process, including its design approach, structure, courseware, and evaluation, is reported. Research issues are also addressed.

Business information systems are usually written and presented in English, with graphics designed from a western cultural perspective. Online help and error messages are likewise written and displayed in English. To exploit global marketplace opportunities, business systems must be designed to accommodate a range of cultural conventions, with printed documentation and online help translated into local languages. The paper discusses major considerations in the translation of online documentation from English to Chinese. It describes the particular approach taken by one major software company and evaluates its efforts from the users' perspective.

The article discusses designing electronic writing classrooms and the various decisions that classroom designers face during this complex task. In particular, it considers four key stages in the design process: establishing a plan, developing a room design, working within budgets, and maintaining a smoothly running computerized classroom. The article provides specific suggestions in these four stages informed by sound instructional goals appropriate to the teaching of technical communication.

The paper describes the implementation of a learning community involving a technical communication course and an accounting course. Students are simultaneously registered in all the courses constituting the learning community. The learning community approach to writing instruction can be viewed as one way to implement writing across the curriculum with the following distinguishing features. First, students are registered simultaneously for both courses; the communication skills taught in one course are simultaneously reinforced in another course. Second, the faculty of the two courses interact extensively to deliver skills (e.g., communication skills) in a coherent manner across the two courses. We describe the development of a theoretical framework for connecting the two courses. This theoretical framework guided implementation decisions such as the choice of communication skills to be covered in the accounting course, the design of assignments, and the design of evaluation criteria. While we focus on the integration of an accounting course with a communication course, the learning community approach and the implementation steps are applicable to other disciplines.

The article discusses how assignments using the Internet can be integrated in an introductory technical communication course without compromising two fundamental pedagogical goals of the course: teaching students how to gather data and how to evaluate it. Three traditional introductory technical communication course assignments (instructions, literature review, and analytical report) that utilize Internet resources to achieve these two goals are described.

Although editors make extensive use of the computer in their work. Most editors still mark changes on paper using traditional editing symbols. There are, however, compelling reasons for editors to begin marking copy on the computer. We consider online editing from the perspective both of editors and their employers. We then focus on one aspect of online editing: the mark-up models embodied in various editing tools. We demonstrate that the different mark-up models and their particular implementations have major implications for the editing process, including the quality of edited material and the worklife satisfaction of editors and writers. We conclude by recommending that the technical communication community exert its influence on software developers and corporate technology planners to encourage the development and adoption of online editing tools that will be congenial to editors.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper examines the dominant metaphors that define and describe three basic components of hypertext (texts, nodes, and links), arguing that they contribute in central ways to the current treatment of this technology in technical communication. It includes a brief overview of the way metaphors filter computer-based tasks and functions, a discussion of hypertext metaphors of identity and the realms from which they are commonly appropriated, and some corollary implications for students and teachers of technical communication. In general, this paper contends that hypertext design choices are both productively and unproductively shaped by social as well as technological forces.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

That readers read within roles has long been argued by literary theorists and more recently by technical communication theorists. Yet few scholars have attempted to put their theories to a test. The study reported in this paper attempts to do by using a conversation analysis tool called ethnomethodology. In an experimental setting, subjects were videotaped reading and responding to a set of instructions. Their responses indicate that: readers will often choose to play a role different from the one embedded in a text, especially if the text role offends them in some way; readers with similar education and interest may display different reader roles, making these roles difficult to predict; and within a single reading, a reader may change roles frequently. The paper concludes by discussing the implications of the findings and the appropriateness of ethnomethodology for reader-role research.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Socializing technology is the rhetorical goal of technology transfer. Specialists from all walks of the technical communications profession can participate in this goal by involving themselves in key processes such as developing market awareness, creating inreach and outreach programs, and facilitating collaborative ventures. By broadening the market for our services in the technology transfer movement, we will increase the scope and value of our skills in a high-visibility endeavor that will be on the national agenda for years to come.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Approaches to using visual language in a cultural context can be placed on a continuum, with global (universal) on one end and culture-focused on the other. Each approach reveals contrasting assumptions about three central design issues: perception, aesthetics and pragmatics. The global approach is characterized by attempts to invent an objective, universal visual language or to define such a language through perceptual principles and empirical research. The culture-focused perspective is founded on the principle that visual communication is intimately bound to experience and hence can function only within a given cultural context, to which designers must be sensitive. While the modernist, universal approach has been losing ground to the postmodern, culture-focused approach, the two complement each other in a variety of ways and, depending on the rhetorical situation, offer pragmatic benefits and drawbacks.

Considers the social and political ideologies that affected the design of illustrations of the female body in English Renaissance medical manuals. Through a semiotic analysis, we examine medical illustrations explicitly tied to female bodies-anatomical illustrations of female genitalia, a clitorectomy and a hymenectomy-to show that the ways in which a body or surgical procedure was visually represented served to create the "other". We learn, by extension, how social and political ideologies affect the decision-making of modern-day technical communicators.

Suggests that current theories about how even the simplest elements of graphical design function in professional communication do not adequately convey the complexity of the element's actual role in communication. By showing how producers of computer interfaces rely on the possibility of multiple interpretive trajectories in the use of any sign and how users of such signs respond in ways that are far from being totally predictable, we argue that it is best to think of the communication act not as a simple exchange of information between two minds (producer and user) but rather as a field of possibilities that requires flexibility and an experimental attitude from both the producer and the user. Examining theoretical developments in the history of physics and cognitive science, we contend that the dominant paradigms of understanding communication-the old cognitive (or computational) model and the social constructionist model as currently employed in the fields of composition and technical communication-fall short of accounting for even fairly straightforward exchanges of information. In place of the communication triangle that both of the old models rely upon, we offer a new model that uses the concept of "consensual domains" as the basis for a general theory of rhetoric. As a starting point for our investigation, we present the history of a still evolving sign-the trash-can icon in the user interface of the Macintosh operating system-from the perspective of a single (also still evolving) human user.